Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

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Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Crazo3077 »

Hello folks near and far! You probably know who I am, but just in case you don't, I am Crazo3077, a moderator, a serious RPer, and a KIA when it comes to Chao. But that doesn't matter so much. Today I am here to give you tips on how to make a better RP. This way you can go from a drab and boring RP to making one that just about anyone wants to join.

I'm probably bound to expect, "What gives you the right to tell us how to do this?" being a question you're asking. Well, nothing gives me the right. But I have experiences quite a few RPs and come from a site that was uber serious about RPing. So I can easily explain better ways to present your RPs for those who are lost or just want to try harder.

Now, let's start with what is an RP?

RP stands for Role-Play, not to be confused with RPG (Role Playing Game). You can look at it like a game, but that isn't exactly respectful to you idea An RP, as explained by Moonsoul, is:
moonsoul wrote:Role-playing is an interactive story between players.
This is pretty simple. If you don't understand, I can attempt to make it more simple. You are basically writing a story with other people. Each person posts from the POV(Point of View). So, you are not playing a game when you are RPing. You are writing a story. Some users on Chao Island love read good RPs. That is why some RPs have a lot of views. (Either that or a page loading error made someone view it way too many time. XD)

Next, let's see some things that you need. The first and most obvious thing you need is a Plot. If you start an RP without telling anyone where they are, when it is, and what they are supposed to do, then your RP isn't a good one. You want to make sure people can answer the following questions.
-Who?
-What?
-When?
-Where?
-Why?
-How?

If you can read the plot of your RP and answer all of those questions, you know your plot will work. But it may not be finished. Always make sure the plot is explained perfectly so people understand exactly what you're looking for them to do. This way no one can do something you didn't want.

The second most important part of an RP is the characters. Before anyone else creates a character, you'll want to create your character and any characters in the RP. You're making a new world. You'll want to make sure that if there is a person that someone will need to talk to, it better exist. Once you have your characters for this new world within your RP, you are ready to start accepting people to join.

No matter what your RP is about, you will need a Character Sheet. A character sheet is filled out with information about the people. You can get really descriptive and actually talk about deeper things about your character, or just keep it simple. Either way, you'll need it. Here is an example.

Character's Name:
Character's Height:
Character's Childhood:
Character's Goal:

I think you get the point. Just include what details you think will need to be pre-planned.

Now, the last thing you need is a list of RP specific rules. I assume one of them is to be not to have your character be perfect in every way. Just make sure you have written rules that control what the people can and can't do. It helps a lot and you won't have to worry about if you remove someone from the RP or not.

Anything after this are less required by are always fun to include in an RP depending on how your RP works.

An Index can be very helpful if your first post is big. It will help people know where to find specific parts of the RP so they can find the rules specifically instead of re-reading the topic again. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS READ A TOPIC BEFORE POSTING IN IT!

Another fun tool is making a point system that the RP's Creator will control. Such as if your characters have a kind of power that will grow. The Creator will choose a way to have the power grow. It can be set to a number of posts, or something silly like having a hat with paper in it and choosing one. I'd also recommend trying to use dice to decide things. It can help it keep the random nature. It is all for the fun of the RP.

Hope this all helps. If you see any problems or have any questions, post them.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Muzm8 »

This is exactly what we need here! *Epic Two Thumbs Up*

I would also like to point out that maybe you should add a part about Originality, because nobody will really be attracted to just another Pokemon RP (unless they're another one of it's Die-Hard fans), but rather to something completely different from what you usually see, great examples being MC's Evile Royale, and you-know-who's Extamina series.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Zena »

:S can you explain it in a simpler?
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Enzo03 »

I have copied this from my past raves:
Enzo03 wrote:I would prefer if there were more serious roleplays, like in the GameFAQs.com roleplay forums, where said roleplays have nice, big stories that make you feel like you are already part of the world you may consider roleplaying in...

The reason I do not roleplay here is because I do not have time to write something up like that (well, I do, but I'd rather do other things ATM), AND the current roleplays just seem something like this:

ok im (insert some unoriginal, brand-name character with maybe a few differences here and there... here.)

i got (some grocery-list style listing of "stats" in the form of numbers)

(lack of description of roleplay here)
ok lets fight
=/ Alas, I'm kind of turned off by this forum section.


EDIT: OK HERE IS A REAL EXAMPLE:
ShoalTheHedgehog wrote:Yo everyone!!!well anyway u can be ur own character and do what ever u want(As long as its legal)lol well i shall be my trio(never said u cant have multiple characters) I Will be Shoal, Aqua, And Drone!
I might want to complain over in that topic, too, but here is what I am curious about:

What is the plot? Is this just a sandbox of whatever? That's not really "role play" as there are no roles.
What is the setting? Anywhere? Since when do story-type games have no setting? Since when do stories themselves have no setting?
What exactly are "Shoal, Aqua, and Drone"??? I have no idea who or what they could possibly be (excepting the fact that this guy's username says "ShoalTheHedgehog", but something like this should be covered in a description.)

And about character descriptions, most good ones are about 2 posts long in the GameFAQs forums. Few get by with one post unless they are insanely good (or if the character is supposed to find out about themself throughout their roleplay, something like that. It takes some magic D:). Bad ones are the ones that cannot seem to get larger than this post here, or are the ones that end up SEVERAL POSTS LONG (like I did once :D :D). While it's really not quantity that matters, it still needs to be a sort of mini-story. That is ideal to me.
comment: Now that I think about it, having a two post-long description in this forum would be HORRIFYING. In fact, I encourage to fit it all in one post, as a 60 THOUSAND character limit is a whole lot, and even if it is only about as long as this post, that can still suffice to explain everything there could possibly be to know about a character.

Stories for the roleplay itself should be able to describe almost everything that could possibly happen, so that participants would know the setting, the plot, the technological level of the setting (e.g. are they still smacking each other with huge clubs made of wood and living in caves? Are they medieval and have huge castles and knights and possibly mythical creatures like dragons, and run off the feudal system? Or is it modern? OR is it far into the future in terms of technology??), etc. One should be able to imagine themself in a world made up by someone else.
comment: As another example, you could try and make a battle-torn world where almost all of the above technologies apply. Battletech, which is a real, serious roleplay and table-top game from '82 does this real well, features technologies which range from modern/near future to extremely advanced. The explanation for this is that humanity, which has spread out beyond the galaxy, has warred incredibly much to the point that many technologies were completely lost, thus allowing for the existence of hyperspace drives while people still fight as foot soldiers now and then, the involvement of tanks and, of course, the famous battlemechs, which are the flagship... uh, devices... in the entire series.



Lastly,
PLAGIARISM SUCKS
Be more original.
I have commented in italics some things which I have changed my mind a bit on or had something to say about it.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Nano »

as long as it's a RP i wanna join that doesn't look like it's gonna take forever for someone to post, it's good enough to me.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Enzo03 »

Well, I've been working on one for a few days now. The only real problem is that while it won't take forever to post, it will take forever to READ! :<
I should know, because it's taking even longer to write.
I will try to water it down a bit so that everything you need to know is there, but I want to keep the style and consistency in it.
I might have to close it off a bit from what I had in mind, too. What I planned was a bit TOO open, but I don't want to limit one's freedoms too much.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by pickachu553 »

I'm intrigued Enzo. I can't wait to see it, considering all your tirades in the past. Anyway, I've given up on MAKING an RP. It's always bad ideas, and nobody joins. Haha, so, this isn't useful to me directly. However, I'm interested in seeing if this helps at all. Generally, you can't fix CI with RPing.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Topgun »

Enzo03 wrote:Well, I've been working on one for a few days now. The only real problem is that while it won't take forever to post, it will take forever to READ! :<
I should know, because it's taking even longer to write.
I will try to water it down a bit so that everything you need to know is there, but I want to keep the style and consistency in it.
I might have to close it off a bit from what I had in mind, too. What I planned was a bit TOO open, but I don't want to limit one's freedoms too much.
When will it open? I want to join. :> I really wouldn't mind reading a lot... usually the bigger the first post is, the more descriptive the users will be and other things. It won't attract people who are too lazy to rp. Y'know?
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Speeps »

If people aren't going to your RP, what do you do?
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by tylertheWWEchao »

i know! people wont come to mine and cranberry's RP nobody posts even the people that joined!
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by CHAOKEEPER »

sounds good to me thanks!
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by K S »

I have problems with joining RP;s 8S
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by DarkieTheUmbrion »

It's easy, tell people what they wanna know but dont lie
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by AlphaSeries4 »

Howdy doo, peoples.

I don't know about you guys, but honestly, these Roleplays seem kind of bad. no backstory, no explanations, no, as the high above ranter put it, roles. And, going with that, the posts are diffidently short. I, being a new member and all, probably won't be responded to. But whether I am or am not, I'll simply put it blunt. I'm going to take an old Roleplay I made from Gaia Online some years ago, and Re-do it for here.
Most of my Roleplays use pictures of other things to represent them.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Speeps »

^ this is a kids site, most of the Roleplays here are made for fun, not as if we were writing a book.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Maple »

AlphaSeries4 wrote:Howdy doo, peoples.

I don't know about you guys, but honestly, these Roleplays seem kind of bad. no backstory, no explanations, no, as the high above ranter put it, roles. And, going with that, the posts are diffidently short. I, being a new member and all, probably won't be responded to. But whether I am or am not, I'll simply put it blunt. I'm going to take an old Roleplay I made from Gaia Online some years ago, and Re-do it for here.
Most of the role plays on this site are indeed bad. They are made for the users who participate to just mess around, which is why Post Count is disabled here. Once in a while, someone like Crazo, or ShadowRoamer will create a high (enough) quality role play, that a select few of the members join.

Also, most of the new members are welcome on this site, and do get responded too.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Kazur »

@jmt; ageist much?
i know a few people offsite that are younger than me (i'm 14) who do awesome roleplays.
sadly i'm not one of them. lol.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by MoonMintFox »

@ Kazur: Not really. :I

So you're implying that 10 year olds at an average level do as well as 15 year year olds as an average level? I don't think so.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by jamesgarner201 »

MoonMintFox wrote:@ Kazur: Not really. :I

So you're implying that 10 year olds at an average level do as well as 15 year year olds as an average level? I don't think so.
I beg to differ. many people (especialy people under 13) will only join an RP thats about things that are familiar. unless its a awesomly great name, storyline, ECT that will simply draw you in. For those of you overage users (14+) will usualy go for something thats actiony. Example is if i made an RP of pokemon most of the child users would want to post but if per say i did something on Metal Gear i would get older posters who would in turn be better at posting actual paragraph posts instead of the confusing (And sort of dumb) script style. I'm technicly a 12 year old but ive not been in a single RP where someone didnt start doing something out of the ordinary or begin to jumble up script posting or do something like attempt to ninja-god-mod by sneaking in a god move or something that messes up the RP. I'm simply stating that no age generaly doesnt matter. on another site someone acctualy believed i was 20 years old because i hardly misspell anything and allways create intricate characters or type comewhat complicated posts. in some ways you are right and in some ways you are wrong.

one more thing. even though i just said depending on what your RP is based on determines the participants, would i get quality RPers if I created an intrricate sci-fi RP? (Hints at Chaopolis' Two Months till Self Destruct! RP)
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Goron »

If people don't join your RP post a link to it...PLEASE JOIN MY RP!! DX
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Blasphemy »

I've been role-playing since I was 10 or 11 so I have plenty of experience as well. And not the small ones either. Honestly, while many of the RPs here aren't very good/plain, I find the lack of description and the "one-liners" even more annoying. Actually irritating is more like it. It wouldn't hurt to have even a small paragraph describing how a character felt or what he or she was thinking at the time. Those are some things you can describe or talk about if you can't think of anything. Not good enough? Then describe their body language as well (Are they rigid and stiff from shock or anger? How is one character looking into another character's eyes for the romance scenes?). There is just so much a person could say in one post that could make it sound so much better.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if we were in one giant chatbox/IM (Oh the chaos that would ensue!). Now of course I recognize and understand that they're young, but most if not all of the members here are at least pre-teens. By then you manage to gather a large vocabulary (vulgar or not), so now wouldn't be a bad time to use it. Then again, I didn't have to RP through forums much as me and my girlfriend did it verbally for a very long time until just recently actually. But the RP was still very descriptive, even though it was verbal.

I'm actually trying to find one to join for the hell of it (hey, it could be fun), I'm reading the plot and a lot of them sound the same, particularly the pokemon RPs. In most of them you have to level them up or try to gain power. How about a twist on that instead? Rather than trying to gain power, why not try to survive instead? Have them survive in an era where Team Rocket has taken over and caused chaos in the pokemon land? Some of the characters could start in research facilities. And no, I'm not going to start this one (In case anyone wants to say, "Why don't you make it then?"), mainly because very soon I won't have the time to run an RP.

If this comes off as offensive, I'm very sorry.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by TeamAZ »

Role Playing... Just a hint, I hate how people take like "Pokemon Trainer RP" Um, use your mind to think of your own story!
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by Flame »

Actually, Pokemon Trainer RP is our own story. Set in our made up region, with a made up team... The list goes on.
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by SonicBoom »

TeamAZ wrote:Role Playing... Just a hint, I hate how people take like "Pokemon Trainer RP" Um, use your mind to think of your own story!
I agree. Even if the only thing they copied is the fact that it's pokemon, that RP still goes further than mine, which is completely origional. Some of the origional RPs, I anc understand why they go down. For example, a long, confusing storyline, or a form that is just intimidating to create
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Re: Making a Quality RP (Tips and Hints)

Post by MoonMintFox »

Though the Pokémon idea is a little overused, you can still develop it into a different plot. e.g., I made a Pokemon RP which involved getting a boat which took 3 RP days to get to a completely new region and having to explore it. there weren't any gym leaders. I had other things planned. There was a few towns, which had people in them, but only few.

Sure it's a new region, but the general concept is still the same. But it's good to RPers who are beginners or like the idea. Or people who want to "take a break" from paragraph styled.

And for the "unoriginal ones go faster and have more people". Well, for one, it's not paragraph styled. Each post only takes a minute to make at the max. If it was paragraph styled, the RP would have more depth and would be slower.
Another is that people KNOW the series. Introducing a new one is going to get less people, and you can't expect everyone to like it from first impressions.

Sorry if I offended anyone here, too. I just wanted to make a few points.
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